All Forum Posts by: Daniel Haberkost

@Damon Jackson House-hacking is simply buying a house or small multi family property (duplex/triplex/quadplex) and renting out the extra rooms/units to cover your housing expense. Listen to episode 350 on the BP podcast. It's all about house-hacking. 

@Meon Diamond have you looked into house-hacking a small multi family to start out?

@Damon Jackson I second @Dwight S. house-hacking is an excellent way for someone like you to get started. It's much easier and less time-consuming than trying to flip/BRRRR/wholesale but still gets you started. Once you get your tenants in place it can be completely passive and hassle free as well.

@Isaac S.

Yeah you’re absolutely right about scale, if you have dozens of units it’s inevitable that you will get some bad eggs, no matter how thoroughly you screen.

@Isaac S. If you screen tenants thoroughly and treat them well you can avoid a lot of the problems you hear about other landlords having. I house-hack and one of my tenants that I currently rent to found out I had a clogged drain in the basement. He went out of his way to call a friend of his with an industrial snake to come and fix it for me. I offered to pay repeatedly but they wouldn’t take my money.

Another tenant that I have goes out of her way to clean the house (without me asking) and has cooked for me numerous times (also without me asking). Those have been my best experiences so far.

@Dillon Fraioli Could you start by house-hacking? In expensive markets it's an especially viable strategy and you have plenty of capital for a 3.5%-5% down payment based on the home values you gave. 

@Tony Kim I would DEFINITELY have the tenant do something that shows they're serious before committing my time to showing them the unit. My market has a severe lack of affordable housing and very high demand for rental units so it's easy to get (serious) tenants to fill out applications before showing them the unit. I would think Los Angeles would be the same.

If someone isn't for real then they just won't fill it out and they disqualify themselves, if they are they will! This should save you a lot of headache.

@Tony Kim what are the steps in your process before getting to the in-person showing? Have they filled out an application already?

Where is your rental located in town?? What avenues are you using to find tenants? I house-hack in Village 7 and have always been inundated with very qualified tenants whenever I have a vacant unit. 

@Lee Castro no problem and definitely do, house-hacking is much easier than flipping, gets you started, and reduces your expenses so you can save quicker for future investments.